Some cricket still left in Matthew Hayden, feels Justin Langer

Former Test opener Justin Langer believes that Matthew Hayden has still some years of cricket left in him.

Langer, who forged Australia's greatest opening combination with Hayden, said his friend is not considering to retire from international cricket.

"There's no point trying to forecast these things. If you, as a batsman, are trying to forecast it, you're not going out there with the clarity of mind you need to succeed," Langer was quoted as saying in The Australian.

"We speak pretty much every day, and I swear that he has not mentioned anything to me about it, or what he's got on his mind in terms of playing on. He plays things pretty close to his chest about these kinds of issues, but I would be surprised if he is spending his days planning how he will leave the game. It could be next week, next year or two years. But when the moment comes, he will know."

Not since The Oval in 2005 has Hayden faced such a pivotal Test. In the very match Australia surrendered the Ashes, Hayden saved his career with a scratchy, attritional century that triggered two of the best years of his career.

"I just keep sensing that he will peel off a magnificent century sometime soon. I have watched him as closely as anyone else, and I could see in his body language in Perth that he wanted it a bit too much and was probably trying too hard to force it. But in Melbourne he looked much more relaxed, and he looked the goods while he was out there," Langer said.

"My gut feeling is that he's not far off and a big hundred might be just around the corner."

Langer was open to continuing his career beyond the 2006-07 Ashes, only to be struck by the retirement bolt on the eve of the Sydney Test.

"I remember Gilly saying to me last year, 'I thought you were a bullshit artist when you said you will wake up one day and know it's time to retire, but it just happened to me'," Langer recalled.